Will.I.Am has vowed to continue working with his musical protege Leah McFall after she came second on The Voice with the rapper inviting talent show contestant to New York to work on new music.

The Black Eyed Peas star spoke out on Sunday morning following the final of the series on Saturday night and also congratulated surprise winner Andrea Begley for triumphing on the show.

He tweeted: "Congratulations to Andrea for winning #TheVoiceUK... It's time to focus and build... let's go@leahmcfallmusic... I'm so pumped... me and Leah will start next week... #newORIGINALsongs.

"As a matter of fact... let's start in NYC next week... somebody wake up the wizards... let's make magic @leahmcfallmusic... Let's have some new songs finished before #wirelessFESTIVAL #boom... let's go!!!"

Will expected his finalist to win the show but visually-impaired singer Andrea Begley stormed ahead in the public vote.

(Image: BBC)

The Irish singer, coached by Danny O'Donoghue, also beat Matt Henry, 34, and Mike Ward, 23, in the public vote on the BBC1 talent show.

"I could never have imagined this. I have to thank everyone at home who voted for me and hopefully I can put your vote to good use."

Joining her on stage Danny gushed: ''I'm so proud of you."

He added: "You're an inspiration to me. I've learnt more from you than you probably have from me ."

(Image: BBC)

The Co Tyrone singer, who studies law, started the night with a hypnotic solo performance of My Immortal by Evanescence and sang The Script hit Hall Of Fame with Danny. But her show-stopping performance was Angel by Sarah Mclachlan.

Andrea is set to rake in as much as £1million in the next year, despite ailing viewing figures for the show.

Having bagged a £500,000 recording contract with Universal for winning the show, she could scoop up to £100,000 on The Voice tour while promotional deals could bag her thousands more.

Now she will aim to rush out her debut album as soon as possible.

Her win may come as a shock to coaches Jessie J and Will.i.am though, after they made it clear they thought fellow Irish singer Leah was the real star of the night.

The Co Antrim singer, dubbed Little Miss Fantastic by the Black Eyed Peas rapper, has already had a Top Ten hit with her rendition of Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive.

She wowed coaches with her own spin on Whitney Houston's hit song I Will Always Love You and a high-energy club duet with Will.i.am of his single Bang Bang.

Script frontman Danny O'Donoghue praised her first solo performance of the night and joked: "God didn't just kiss her throat, he made out with it."

Speaking of her amazing ability to hit such high notes, Sir Tom Jones also said: ''She has a freaky voice. She goes places where only dogs can hear."

Soulful Matt - coached by Jessie J -was the first to be axed on the night, receiving the fewest public votes.

A gob-smacked Holly told him: "I'm so sorry and so shocked. You've been absolutely brilliant."

Matt said: 'This competition means the world to me. It's allowed me to work with some of the most amazing artists.'

Annoyed coach Jessie joined him on stage and said: "Based on Matt's performance this shouldn't be what's happened right now."

And appealing to the viewers she added: "You have to vote for the person who pulls the performance out the bag."